This invention relates to navigation systems, and more particularly to a technique for electronically obtaining a perspective display aboard a linearly moving vehicle.
Perspective perception of space is very natural to man. The eye recognizes size, distance and orientation of objects, as well as their spatial arrangement on the basis of angular dimensions. Angular inputs to the brain and a vast amount of stored information permit man to navigate through his three-dimensional environment.
Electronic navigational aids have in many respects improved and supplemented human navigational capabilities, but in general they do not provide information, which is optimally interfaced with man's brain. They are not a substitute for perspective vision.
The present invention is a perspective navigation system, which provides basically the same information as vision does. A need for such a system is obvious in several practical situations, such as an aircraft landing under adverse weather conditions. Instrument landing systems are well known and improved versions are presently being developed, but known systems operate on the principle of a glide path and provide measurements of the aircraft deviation thereof.
In my copending application filed on the same date, there is disclosed a perspective navigation system in which a plurality of sensors detects signals from runway marker beacons and each of the detected signals are compared to a reference signal. However, in the present invention only a first sensor is compared to a reference signal while the others are then compared to the first. In addition, the present invention is based on different mathematical formulas.